The quest for green growing things [status, gardening]

In the years of living in upstate New York, the onset of winter darkness seems to create in me a strong urge to put shiny colorful lights wherever I can.

This year it seems that I have a strong desire to have green, growing things in as many places as I can. Consider the betta's tiny plants, the terrariums in my office window, et cetera.

At home we have something of a challenge when it comes to green growing things. Okay, multiple challenges. One of the challenges is that the cats are enthusiastic plant eaters. Martha likes to look at the shelves where the plants are going, and thinks, "Challenge accepted" and then figures out clever ways to climb to the top and chew on whatever she can reach.

Another challenge is that with the way the house is situated, we have pretty limited window real estate where there's enough light to actually grow plants, especially in the winter. To help with the overall situation, a couple weeks ago we bought some small shelf brackets from the hardware store, plus a 2x2 piece of wood, to serve as a more sturdy plant hanging surface than the rickety curtain rods that were there previously in our kitchen windows.

On Sunday I stained the wood, and on Monday morning I was able to get it varnished before heading in to work. So this morning I drilled some holes and installed a bunch of cup hooks, and then hung the wood back up again.



I'll also hang a couple of plant lights from the wood.

I also started moving some of the plants that had been indoors, onto the front porch, where we have a wire rack set up with a clear plastic cover, another pair of grow lights, and a seed germination heating mat. The front porch can get pretty cold, so hopefully with that setup some of the more cold-tolerant plants will be okay and then hopefully we can use the available warm indoor growing space to start germinating more plants. I'd like to get lettuce going, for example.

In case that isn't enough, this morning I also set up a couple of plant trays in the windowsill in my lab:



I just happen to have bought a couple of light holders for some reptile cages that we aren't using anymore, but I'll have to bring back in the grow bulbs I'd brought home.

We seem to have somehow accumulated a whole bunch of different varieties of tomato seeds, so I put some of every kind into each pot, with labels, so we can see whether or not the seeds germinate, and have some clue as to what each variety is.

I have this setup at work because at some point I also want to go back to growing pea plants to feed pea leaves to the leafcutter ants.

Meanwhile, a friend sent me a box of concentrated sunshine from Arizona:


And the chunk of ice inside of Petrichor finally broke off when I poked it over the weekend:




So all signs suggest that yes, some day there will be more green growing things outside again, too.

Until then, I should be working to tackle the small mountain of grading that seems to have accumulated.

Home/rowing projects of the now [projects, rowing]

One of the reasons I've been keen to get the plant rod set up is so I can get back to working on the chair refinishing project on the front porch.

There are four rowing projects to tackle in the near future, too:

-Finish overhauling the bow and stern light charging station. I just finally went ahead and ordered a fresh set of cables and new 10-USB charging stations. The original light sets came with USB charging stations, but one of them failed after several years of use. While I was away, someone tried to find and order a replacement, but it looks like only 9 and maybe fewer than 9 of the 10 ports on the replacement actually work, so unfortunately that's even more ewaste. I ordered the new stations from the people who make the boat lights, so at least if they don't work I can return them. It looks like they are now selling a different style of charging station compared to the ones we got in the past, which suggests to me that they're paying attention to the quality of the electronics they are selling. This project should at least be fairly straightforward.

-Make and install new bunk boards for the two safety launch trailers we use the most. To get this done I need to go wood shopping again, because we originally bought pressure-treated lumber and then I saw some things suggesting that the chemicals in pressure-treated lumber *might* cause corrosion issues with the metal on the safety launches. That might not actually be the case, but the howto video I found for making bunk boards looks like it outlines a good series of steps for prepping and sealing non-pressure-treated wood before applying the carpet. There are some other trailer repair items to tackle, too, like winch strap and winch updates. I will feel a lot better about life once these trailers are in better shape, because we put them in and take them out of the water every day, multiple times a day, once we're back on the water.

-Install permanent lights on one of the safety launches. I have ordered the actual lights and the marine-grade sealant from Fisheries Supply, but now I need to figure out the right kind of battery to get, plus wires, connectors, and probably also a very basic switch plate. The lights are all LED lights, so the battery requirements shouldn't be insane, but it's still important to get the right thing for a marine environment. For those elements I want to wait until the lights show up so I can wave them at someone who most likely knows more than me about the best items for this project.

-Refinishing oar blades. I now finally have all the supplies I need for this. The things I'm missing are space and time. If I can get the chairs done, and also resist the temptation to start other home woodworking projects, I'll at least have some space for getting started on the practice blades. This project isn't as urgent as the three prior projects, but I'd like to get underway with it because it will be the most personally satisfying project out of this list.

There are even more rowing projects on the agenda for the near future that I'm not even going to list here yet. Some of that is because efforts are underway to repair and replace parts of our rowing boat shed that have corroded to the point of failure. Some of it is other work to get ready to go back out on the water for spring.

It's all a lot, and one of the hardest parts is that although there are people willing to help, for the most part they don't really know what to do or how to do it.

It all still beats having to be the president of the club, heh. All of the above PLUS the administrative nonsense of running a club is TOO MUCH, and hopefully no single person ever has to try and do it all by themselves, ever.